Six poppy tin thefts in East Lancashire (From Lancashire Telegraph)

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Six poppy tin thefts in East Lancashire

11:30am Friday 11th November 2011 in Barrowford Photograph of the Author By Sam Chadderton, Reporter

CATCH THIS MAN CCTV footage shows the thief strike in Santander, Blackburn

POPPY tin thieves have been branded ‘disgusting’ and ‘beneath contempt’ after striking six times in East Lancashire.

Police have released CCTV footage of a suspect who walked into the Santander bank in Blackburn and posed as a customer before swiping the full collection tin.

Officers believe, in the 60 seconds he was in the bank, he used a blade to cut the security cord attached to the red poppy tin, which contained between £50 and £100.

Yesterday another tin was stolen from the Halifax, in King William Street, Blackburn.

And thieves have also taken Poppy Appeal and Help The Heroes boxes from a butchers in Barrowford, a dental practice in Barnoldswick, a medical centre in Nelson and a bakers in Brierfield.

Police and the Royal British Legion said the thefts were appalling.

Blackburn town centre PC Dave Hall said: “When you consider what our forces are suffering in deployment around the world at the moment, this is absolutely beneath contempt.

“Staff at the banks were certainly upset by what happened.

"We will be putting in a lot of effort to identify these thieves.

“It is opportunistic because of the time of year.

“Clearly they have not remotely considered the sacrifice people have made and the reasons people have put money in the box in the first place.

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"They have taken it for their own selfish reasons.”

The CCTV footage shows the Santander bank teller serving another customer while the thief stands close by at about 9.15am on Wednesday.

He is then seen quickly hiding the tin in his clothing.

The bank’s management declined to comment, but the teller said: “I saw him, but he was standing so close to the customer I was serving that I thought they were together, but they were not.

“He asked me if he needed any ID to open an account, I looked away, then replied ‘Yes’.

"By then he must have taken it.

“It was full of money because staff and customers had been donating. It is a disgusting thing to do.”

A member of staff raised the alarm around 9.30am when they went to put £1 in and noticed the tin was gone.

PC Hall said: “We’ve got the evidence, we just need a name.

“If anyone recognises this man or has any information, they need to contact us.

"We need to know who this person is.”

He also urged anyone with information about the Halifax theft, which happened between 11.30am and 2.30pm, to come forward.

PC Hall said: “We’ve had to go around to shops and warn them this is happening. It is very sad, but necessary, to ask them to lock them and keep an eye on them.”

Police said a brick was thrown through a window at Beeches Butchers, Gisburn Road, Barrowford on Sunday, October 30 and three charity collections from the Poppy Appeal, Pendleside Hospice and Lancashire Air Ambulance.

Then a Help For Heroes collection was taken from Integrated Dental Holdings, in Barnoldswick, during office hours.

The Royal British Legion said that Poppy Appeal boxes had also gone missing from a branch of Oddies in Brierfield and from Yarnspinners Medical Centre in Nelson.

Royal British Legion community fundraiser for Lancashire, Sarah Tinsley, said it was ‘sad’ that charity collection tins had to be chained down to try and prevent theft.

She said: “It is not something that happens regularly, thankfully, but it is something that does cause distress to everyone, especially the organisation.

"At the end of the day this is money for servicemen and their families in Lancashire that they desperately need.

“This man must have been desperate to stoop so low and steal from a charity.”

Blackburn with Darwen Mayor Coun Karimeh Foster said: “I’m speechless.

"You like to think you can trust people yet there are people like this in our society.

"This has brought shame on our town.

“It is a disgusting way to act. People put money in to go to the right place for soldier protecting our country and democracy and somebody this cruel goes and takes it.”

The suspect is described as a white man in his 20s, wearing a black woollen hat, a grey hooded jacket with cream lining in the hood, a cream jumper with horizontal stripes and dark tracksuit pants with stripes down the side.

Janet Taylor, secretary of Nelson British Legion branch, said those responsible were “the lowest of the low”.

“How desperate must people be to steal a few pounds from charitable causes.

“The person who reported one of the thefts told me ‘the scumbags seem to be out in force this year’ and I couldn’t agree more.”

Contact Blackburn Police on 01254 51212 or 0845 1 253545 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Comments(33)

happycyclist says...
11:34am Fri 11 Nov 11

The headline in the newspaper describes them as "SCUM".
That's exactly what they are and it's good to see the LT finally describing them as such.